My Vege Garden

This is my vege garden.

Every year, I tell myself I'm going to have an amazing, productive garden and some years, I even achieve that.

About 5 years ago, we decided to turn this patch into a vege garden. Everyone got excited about it. Hubby sprayed the grass and weeds and turned it over with the rotary hoe. Then he just kind of left it. 

I did get his help to put in the deer fence height warratahs to stake my tomatoes. 

But I made the beds, I planted and weeded and watered, I nipped laterals from tomato plants and tied them up, I mounded up potatoes, I picked several kg of beans each day to keep them fruiting. 

I picked, I podded, I blanched, I froze, I bottled and preserved in every way you can imagine and possibly a few you can't. 

So I was a little pissed when I heard my darling Hubby bragging about his vege garden and how well he's done with it. 

The following year, I left him to it. And it was pitiful. I managed to rescue several of the jalapenos and count that as a win.

The year after, I decided to try hugelkultur beds. I was soundly criticised by family and the beds didn't really take off. 

Last year, I was working a physical job and didn't have the energy after work to put into a garden. But I did experiment with a patch of it. I spread a thick layer of chainsaw shavings over this stretch. I topped it with a decent layer of well rotted manure and then another layer of shavings. 

It was about as wide as a footpath and ran for maybe 8m. I planted some tomatoes and a cucumber in this patch and surrounded it with a net to keep rabbits, chickens and our one remaining turkey out.

It went okay. Nothing particularly special, but better than we'd seen for a while. 

This year, I'm feeling a bit more motivated. I weeded the patch I'd built up last year. It was so easy. The roots came up with barely any force, I was pulling up entire root systems for cooch and yarrow with ease.

And the soil! It was rich and dark and full of life. It was light and healthy. 

A two finger salute to the people who tried to convince me that macrocarpa mulch is toxic and kills the soil. 

So this inspired me even more. We've got plenty of wood mulch, Hubby is chipping the too-small-for-firewood trimmings from the macrocarpa hedge we had cut down last year. 

I have started with a bed along the length of the tunnelhouse. I wanted to put tall climbing peas there. They need support. Ideas were tossed around. I decided to make my own, with the help of a few years worth of baling twine and a gun stapler.

Hubby has been looking at my work with a puzzled frown and confused judgement. But I've decided it's my garden this year and he can just stay out of it. 

Yesterday I started working out where my beans are going. I'm cleaning up the ground and making beds and paths as I go. I'm using stuff we have around the place for supports and inspiration. Yes the beans are going to be in wavy lines, and in the curves, I'm planting other stuff. 

I'm going for a wilder garden, few straight lines, no monoculture beds, random, glorious chaos. I want a vege garden that's fun, where a wander through is a bit of an adventure. Turn a corner and there's some unexpected broccoli, or sunflowers or that patch of wild fennel I chose to leave where it was. 

He keeps asking me what's my plan for this part. No plans, isn't it exciting?

He thinks I'm crazy but hasn't said it out loud. I don't care. Currently it's a work in progress, I will keep you updated.